I think such a sign may be called a "tumbler card".
I was fortunate enough to get a photocopy of the March 1973 issue of Motor Coach Age, which gave an in-depth coverage of the history of Staten Island buss routes, written by Bernard Linder. (You can buy a copy from the Staten Island Museum; www.StatenIslandMuseum.org). The "117-New Dorp Beach" was shown as having started in either 1922 or 1926 by New Dorp Beach Bus Service. The original route ran from 5th and Rose Avenues to Neutral & Cedar Grove Avenues. The route was abandoned on Sept. 20, 1937, then was operated by Children's Bus Service until Dec. 12, 1937, at which time it was taken over by Staten Island Coach Co. During that timeframe, Staten Island Coach was operating a fleet of ACF Model H-12-S, H-13-S, H-15-S and H-17-S transit buses, as well as some Yellow 728's. Some White 684's acquired from Tompkins Bus Co. also may have been used.At some later time, the route was extended all the way to St. George Terminal. Isle Transportation took the route in 1946, but all Staten Island bus lines were acquired by the NYC Board of Transportation on Feb. 23, 1947. By mid-1949, a fleet of Mack C-45-GT's and GM TDH-5101's. In 1950, the 117 was operated out of the then-new Castleton Depot. Some Mack C-50-DT's were assigned to Castleton when they were new. By 1956, a fleet of air-ride Mack C-49-DT's assumed much of the service on Staten Island. The C-50-DT's left the island in 1960. New Looks arrived in 1964 when the Verrazano Narrows Bridge opened to traffic. All Macks were gone by 1969, replaced by GM TDH-5106's. Today's S76/S86 still covers most of the route of the old R-117.

Here's a bit more on the R-117.
In later years, the 117 apparently was combined with2 other nearby routes serving the South Shore of Staten Island; it was then called "R-108/113/117".
In his book NYC Transit System Bus & Trolley Coach Fleet Jim Greller showed an NYCTA bus assignment sheet dated June 1960. It showed the R-108/113/117 was assigned 19 buses making 292 daily trips, making it the #4 busiest route, behind R-2 (Bay St.), R-6 (Victory Blvd.), and R-107 (Forest Ave.).
Greller's book also presented an NYCTA roster from sometime in 1958, which showed 35 gas-powered White Model 684 transits (NYCTA 600-634) that had been acquired from Isle Transportation Corp. in 1947. These buses probably never made it out of Staten Island and likely stayed there until NYCTA got rid of them. By that late date, gas powered buses likely were unwelcome in a mostly diesel powered fleet.

Fast forward to today, and the S-76 still operates out of CAS.
It runs from St. George Terminal to Mill Rd. and Delwit Ave. in New Dorp daily, but there is no service between midnight and 6 or 7 AM.
Now the line is operated with either Orion VII EPA 10 3G diesels (a 90-bus fleet that today is limited solely to CAS) or Nova LFS 40-foot diesels.
Rush hour limited-stop service runs as S-86 Ltd. but only from 4:00 PM-5:30 PM weekdays, and only in the direction of New Dorp.

NYO: Is it possible for you to supply a photo of the sign for us to see? Thank you.

frankie:

If I had a scanner, I would do so gladly; lacking a scanner (and a camera!) the best I can do is to describe the sign as best I can.

I hope someone might be able to supply an approximate date for this sign (given the info I had posted in my initial post); I was thinking that, perhaps, this sign might have been placed in the windshield of a WAMATA bus, when the Grummans were yanked from service.

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